How different Jian Ghomeshi looks now, six days into his trial for allegedly sexual assaulting three women.

At the start, the fallen CBC star was pale and ashen, save for the dark saucers beneath his eyes. His career in ruins, his reputation in tatters, now his very liberty was in question. The tension radiated from his every pore as he waded through a crush of cameras to enter the courthouse.

Almost like a group prayer, he would start each morning clutching the hands first of his worried-looking mom and then those of his supportive sister, exchanging nods with each, before taking his own seat beside his dream team of lawyers. Silent and watchful, sometimes taking notes, he meticulously avoided eye contact with the media hordes he once reigned over. Ghomeshi looked shrunken.

Not so much anymore.

His expected three-week trial looks as if it will limp to the finish line before the end of the week. Who knows if it was ever a real consideration but there now appears to be no need whatsoever for him to testify in his own defence. Those infamous dulcet tones that purred for years over the radio waves will not be heard in courtroom 125 in Old City Hall.

In fact, it looks like defence lawyer Marie Henein has done such a devastating job of dispatching his three accusers that she won’t call any witnesses at all. Why bother when the Crown’s case against her client lies shattered in thousands of pieces on the courtroom floor?

It was advertised as the Canadian media trial of the century, where the former star of CBC Radio’s Q was facing four counts of sexual assault and one of overcoming resistance by choking involving three women between 2002 and 2003. Only actress Lucy DeCoutere asked the court to lift the usual publication ban on her name. Similar stories, similar facts, they seemed to have power in their number.

And then they crashed and burned.

All three have now testified. After legal arguments, Justice William Horkins has agreed to consider the testimony of the fourth — and final — Crown witness: A friend of DeCoutere’s who says the Trailer Park Boys’ actress told her about the alleged assault more than a decade ago. Because she’s snowed in out east and can’t testify in person, her evidence will be in a transcript of her police interview.

“In context of this case the safest course is to hear the evidence,” the judge ruled, “and then I can determine what — if any — probative value it may have.”

After that and some agreed statements of fact, Henein indicated that she’s ready to go straight to closing arguments, without so much as a defence witness called. Ghomeshi, who has watched his accusers squirm on the stand, will not have to utter a word.

For a guy who’s admitted to liking his sex rough, it makes you wonder whether he’s been enjoying the painful ride given the women who’ve alleged that he slapped, punched or choked them. He’s been able to witness them under fierce cross-examination by his lawyer as she’s called them liars, opportunists, fame seekers basking in the notoriety of the media storm.

In fairness, these women brought it largely upon themselves, providing countless opportunities for Henein to pick apart their stories. They chose to tell police and prosecutors a very edited version of what they say happened, leaving out reams and reams of other details — how they had e-mailed him, sent him sexy photos of themselves, dated him or as the third witness finally revealed, even had a sexual encounter with him after the alleged violence.

Their lack of truthfulness and forced, last-minute revelations — that came largely because Henein sharply confronted them with the evidence in hand — has tarnished their credibility and raised very real reasonable doubt.

So while many women went to the media with their allegations against Ghomeshi — almost two dozen in all — that means nothing in this court of law where the judge alone will rule on those of just these three, now-discredited, complainants.

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